Likud MK Boaz Bismuth and Religious Zionist Party (RZP) MK Zvi Sukkot requested in a letter to Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana (Likud) on Sunday to form a parliamentary investigation into what they claimed was "selective enforcement" against protestors against the government's judicial reforms.
"To our astonishment," Bismuth and Sukkot wrote, "and in a decisively different manner than law enforcement's treatment of similar cases in the past, these demonstrations receive an inclusive, soft, and compromising policy, which ignores illegal and destructive acts."
"This can be seen in police enforcement and in the prosecution's conduct against those lawbreakers, in a way that is unprecedented in the history of the state of Israel. When it was haredim, settlers, Ethiopians, etc., the law enforcement agencies acted with an iron fist," the two wrote.
Bismuth and Sukkot added that this "selective enforcement" constituted a "critical blow to democracy" and to the rule of law, and therefore requested that the parliament form an investigative committee.
MKs Yitzhak Pindrus (United Torah Judaism) and Yitzhak Kreuzer (Otzma Yehudit) also supported the initiative, according to a statement that accompanied the letter.
Ohana and the six deputy Knesset speakers will decide in their weekly meeting on Monday whether or not the proposal will be brought before the Knesset plenum.
Cabinet criticizes attorney-general
The cabinet last Sunday held a meeting in which a number of ministers criticized Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara over her office's treatment of the protests, with some ministers openly calling for her removal. Baharv-Miara argued during the meeting that the police had the prerogative to make an independent operational judgment when treating demonstrations and that the government was not authorized to intervene.
Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, who also attended the meeting, said that the police had not changed its enforcement policies. The reason there were so few indictments against protestors was because none of them attacked police officers, Shabtai explained.
Ministers again criticized Baharav-Miara on Tuesday after she issued an opinion that allowed for protests at Ben-Gurion International Airport, which she said was public property. In response, Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced on Sunday that she would bring forward a bill to restrict demonstrations at the airport.